Studying the Top Quark at ATLAS

Dr. Boisvert ATLAS activities involvesoftware development work for the High Level Trigger while her analysis interests continue to center around the top quark. Top quark physics will be of prime importance for ATLAS both to confirm the Standard Model nature of the top quark and as a calibration signal. Top quark physics is best performed at low luminosity and is a good candidate for the first results coming out of the collaboration. Moreover, top quark events involve many of the objects that are relevant to all other analyses like: high Pt leptons, light and heavy jets, missing transverse energy, and is then an ideal stepping stone to an analysis involving the Higgs boson for example.

The Higgs boson is the crucial missing piece of the Standard Model and is responsible for all the particles acquiring mass. Since the top quark is the heaviest currently known particle, it is likely to be closely linked to the process of electroweak symmetry breaking from which the Higgs boson come from in the Standard Model. Dr. Boisvert is currently involved in studies aimed at measuring the cross section of the top quark at the LHC center-of-mass energy as well as using radiative top pair events (ttg) in order to have direct access to the elecromagnetic coupling of the top quark.